Before The Evil
by The White Namek
Summary: During an expedition to planet Vegeta-sei, King Kold, his wife Samusa and Cooler meet with unexpected events. And what are they going to do when Samusa goes into premature labor?


Warnings: Violence, Language and Nudity. Btw, _Whiptail_, _Frozen Fever_ and the 'lyrics' for the both of them don't belong to any real artists. I just made them up for this fic.

˜ ™Before The Evil˜ ™ 

~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~

A figure stood by a window, a silhouette against the dim sunset. Glistening ruby red eyes opened and gazed upwards as the first stars started to appear in the sky. The figure had one hand resting on her vaguely round abdomen. She turned her head and a glint of light danced over the purple carapace on her brow. When she turned fully, more light shimmered across her purple armor which easily stretched to accommodate her growing belly.

Rustling sounds punctuated the silence as a mountain of muscle topped with upswept horns joined the first. The second figure, obviously male, wrapped his arm gently around the first and allowed his hand to rest on her round belly. The female turned her hornless head and smiled up at the male.

"Isn't it a wonderful night, Kold?"

"Yes, it is, Samusa. A perfect night to visit a new planet."

They fell silent again, silence being common between them. Just being close was enough for them, their love being that strong. Sometimes they sat together for hours, holding each other close and not uttering a single word.

"How is the little one?" King Kold asked, passing a hand gently over Samusa's round stomach, fearing that pressing too hard would crush it like an egg. He still found it difficult to believe that, right there inside the woman he loved, was a budding life. Something created from nearly nothing. There were times where he would stare at her for hours picturing the tiny being as it moved about in her womb.

"Kicking." Samusa replied with a hint of laughter in her voice. She adjusted Kold's hand to rest over the spot where the tiny feet were at work.

Kold's dark lips pulled into a slight smile at the tiny vibrations that welcomed his large palm. He leaned his face down near Samusa's, pressing his mouth carefully to hers. For a moment he forgot their conversation and allowed the heat of his wife's velvety lips to intoxicate him. "How do you think Cooler will take to having a younger sibling?"

"I bet he'll do fine." She smiled warmly with the taste of her lover still fresh on her lips, "And he'll have someone to occupy him."

"Let's hope so. He's coming with us on the expedition to planet Vegeta. I've heard a lot about the Saiyajin race. And I'm curious as to just how strong they really are." Kold's voice lowered to a secretive tone, "Besides, we need a vacation and Cooler needs to get out more."

"True…" Samusa replied as she sat down in the round black hoverchair Kold had ordered built to keep her off her feet. According to the doctor in charge of her pregnancy, the baby she was carrying had rooted low in the womb and could easily be miscarried or born prematurely if she engaged in any vigorous activity.

Kold turned from his wife and smiled before he started out of the room. He missed her touch already, and like a rocket that never quite reached escape velocity, he returned for one more quick kiss. "I'll go tell Cooler to prepare."

The woman blushed at her husband's stolen kiss, gave him a playful shove and watched, grinning, as he disappeared through the door with a snap of his lavish cape.

A lanky, dark purple Icejin with a white torso and youthful face lined in bright red sat intently beside a computer console, fiddling with a half-assembled scouter. The teenager turned in his seat and bent down to pick up a circuit board, shimmers racing across the sapphire armor imbedded in the center of his hornless head-bone.

The sound of swishing cloth preceded the heavy footsteps of King Kold, who stopped long enough to poke his horned head through the door and rumble, "Cooler. We're leaving in half an hour. Start preparing."

"Right. I'll be ready in fifteen minutes," Cooler replied and beamed towards his father's rugged face. He dove off the stool and began eagerly placing items of all shapes and sizes into the packaging crate that would be loaded onto the ship. The process of packaging and labeling his equipment took nearly fifteen minutes because some of the devices were still unstable or incomplete.

Cooler caught his own reflection in the mirror above his bed and sighed as he bent down to place the half-assembled scouter into the crate. He was thankful that there weren't any females, except for one he liked, around to poke fun at him for looking a bit out of proportion. His red eyes were finally starting to look less doe-like and more menacing. His lean legs were still growing, appearing longer than the rest of him, and muscles were starting to replace the childhood chubbyness under his smooth skin.

The young Icejin finished packing his tools, shoved the crate towards the first servant that entered the room and said, "Take this to the ship. Don't drop it or I'll drop you, got it?" He silently wished his voice would hurry up and deepen so he could sound as threatening as his father when he gave out orders.

"Yes, sir." Replied the nervous humanoid. He called for reinforcements and they went to work hefting the crates onto their shoulders.  
  
Not wanting to keep his father waiting, Cooler gestured wildly to hurry the servants along and dashed towards the docking bay. Samusa was already waiting there, smiling at him with one hand on her large stomach and her other resting against the side of the hoverpod. He thought she was beautiful, and that he was lucky to have her for a mom. She always went out of her way to help him whenever he needed it, and he could tell her secrets that he'd never tell his father.

Samusa sighed as Cooler came closer. He seemed to be growing up too fast for her liking. "You ready?"

"More than just ready," Cooler smirked, his slender tail waving like a restless serpent, "I'm going to burst if we don't get to that planet soon!"

Samusa chuckled at his exuberance and patted his back with a manicured hand, ushering him into the ship. "Have a little patience, my son. We'll be there before you know it."  
  
Cooler nodded and heaved himself through the airlock. Once inside, he snatched a small crate from the hands of a hapless servant and ripped the lid off to retrieve a coin-sized silver disk. Then, shoving the crate back at the poor alien, he made his way into the control room, stuffed the tiny disk into a port above the intercom. With a grin of excitement spreading across his thin black lips, he flipped on the live feed and tweaked the volume control buttons until the entire ship was blasted with the crashing drums, electric guitars and screaming voices of _Whiptail_, his favorite band.

"Yeah!" Cooler hopped back and wiggled his fingers to pluck the strings of an imaginary guitar while doing his best to imitate the lead singer's growling vocals, "_I'm gonna conquer your world! I'm gonna take over! I'm risin' to power and there's nothin' you can do about it! Here I am, weaklings! I have arrived! YAAAAAAAAH! Bow down to me! I will rule this universe and all of you!_" He tossed his head and repeated, "_Bow down to me! YAAAAAAAH!!! Bow down to me! YAAAAAAAAAH!!!_"

King Kold and Samusa were overseeing the last of their luggage when the ear-splitting music exploded from the ship's external com speakers, carrying the unknown future with it.

__

Bam! Boom-boom, bam! Boom-boom, bam! Boom-boom bam-bam boom!

Kold's cape thundered in angry protest as he placed two massive hands on either side of his horned head and growled, much to the fright of the nearby servants. "Argh, Cooler!"  
  
"Well, what did you expect him to do when you told him the band was in the area?" Samusa covered her ears as well and giggled up at her angry husband. She felt the growing life in her body stretch out in response to the noise and movement going on around its soft world of liquid warmth.

The large Icejin glared at his wife with a sneer, "I never gave him permission to go! He stole some money and snuck out!"

Turning away, Samusa blushed guiltily and smiled, taking her hands off her ears. _No...I *gave* him some money to go and left the airlock open so he could come back in without you noticing. He just said he stole it and snuck out keep up his rebellious schoolyard image. Silly man._

"Oh, let him have his fun. We're only young once." She slipped some honey and sugar into her voice with the hopes of calming her angry lover down. "Don't you remember how we used to dance to the _Frozen Fever_ band?"

Just as Samusa had hoped, King Kold's angry snarl melted, "How could I forget?" He leaned over the back of her hoverpod, placed his lips next to her ear and hummed off-key, "_Pretty girl with the bright red eyes and hourglass figure...come dance with me and I'll keep you warm with my hot body..._"

"Kold!" She started to laugh and slapped him playfully away, "The baby will hear!"

"It'll be a good fifteen or sixteen years before he or she even knows what we're talking about, my love." Kold smirked mischievously, catching her hand and nuzzling her silky palm with his lips. "We should get going...I don't know how much longer I can stand to listen to that...that..._noise_!"

Samusa nodded silently and followed her husband into the ship. As soon as they were inside, Kold headed into the control room where Cooler was dancing around like an idiot and promptly flipped off the music.

Cooler continued to swing his head and tail until he realized the drumbeat he was following had cut off. The sudden silence made his ears ring as he met the gaze of his not-too-happy papa. "Uh...it's travel music, really!"

Kold parted his lips and calmly replied, "It's _noise_...but if you INSIST upon listening to it, hook the disk into a scouter so the rest of the ship can operate in peace. In case you haven't noticed, everyone here except for you now has a headache the size of a small asteroid..."

"Well, now you know what your music sounds like to me. Really...the noise you like is _old_," the youth muttered to himself.

Cooler had a point there, and Kold couldn't argue. He glanced over at Samusa when she rode her pod over to one of the consoles and heaved a sigh. "Just get into your seat so we can take off."

"Sure thing."  
  
Pretty soon, all that was seen of the glorious round ship was it's contrail as it left the atmosphere and streaked across the horizon until it became just another glittering star in the night.

The flight to planet Vegeta took a few days, but Cooler was able to keep busy working on his computer games and holographic projections. Samusa and King Kold spent all their time together, watching the stars roll by with one arm around the other. Sometimes they would talk. Sometimes they were silent for hours. Finally Samusa tore Cooler away from his tinkering so he could see the glorious nebula they were passing. "Right past that is where we're going. See that red speck? That's the planet."

Cooler pressed his hands to the cold Plexiglas that separated him from the vacuum of cold, airless space and gazed at the little red speck in the distance. "…Wow."

Samusa smiled and put her arm around his shoulder. "Your younger sibling is kicking me again." She mused as Kold passed by to take up a seat near one of the computer consoles so he could go over the landing protocols one final time.

"Can I feel?" Cooler asked. It always did fascinate him as to how his mother could have something alive in her stomach. He did know the 'birds and the bees', but still, his young mind found it quite unusual to witness in person what he'd learned in his studies.

"Sure." She took his hand and placed it on the lower right side of her stomach, and sure enough, the tiny kicks could be felt. "Earlier this morning I was being kicked up here." She pointed to a spot above where the unborn child was kicking at the moment. "So I guess it moved a little."

For King Kold's race, known as Ice-Jins, the uterus fills with mostly fluids like a real big cushion. The fetus inside floats freely, not completely constricted like a human child. The only time the fetus will be constricted is when the water breaks and the uterus contracts to expel the fluid over a period of hours(sometimes days as well). When this happens, the mother's stomach would decrease in size until she no longer looks pregnant. Usually when the mother looks like this, birth would take place in a matter of minutes. The slang term for the breaking of the water was often called 'deflating'. The un-pregnant looking state was often referred to as 'quickening'.

"We'll be landing in half an hour." Kold reported, his words breaking Cooler's train of thought.

"Very well. We should prepare then." Samusa replied, patting Cooler's shoulder and moving off to her seat so she could gather some of her belongings.  
  
Cooler just grinned and hopped into his seat, his tail swishing excitedly. Before long, the small ship detached from the larger carrier vessel. The larger vessel would wait in orbit until the other ship was ready to be picked up, and also there as a precaution in case an emergency escape was needed.

Everyone hung on tight for the bumpy ride as the ship started to enter the atmosphere. Cooler did his best to fight down the nausea that was fluttering around in his stomach, but wasn't too successful. He'd had to grab the little suction device(their version of a barf bag) on the side of his chair twice and threw up into it once. "Ugh."

"Don't worry, Cooler. We're almost there." Samusa commented, putting her hand over his lightly and smiling comfortingly, understanding the problem he was having. He literally looked two shades paler than his normal dark purple color. Samusa smiled again and squeezed his hand, thinking of how he was looking more and more like his grandfather. Same skin coloring, anyway. Why he wound up looking like that instead of his parents, she'd never know.

"King Kold, Sire! We have blips on our radar!" Said the mottled purple reptoid watching over the radar. His voice rose to a higher pitch, "They're huge and heading this way!"

"WHAT!? Are they a threat?" Kold, eyes wide and glaring, nearly leapt from his seat.

"I don't know yet, sire. They have high power levels and - " The man never finished his sentence.

King Kold caught a glimpse of a full moon a split second before something impacted against the side of the ship. Samusa grabbed the sides of her seat and Cooler squeezed his eyes shut as the ship was sent reeling in an out of control spin. Another impact shook the vessel, and Cooler thought he saw something covered in brown fur with red eyes and a monkey-like tail, it's fist held high and coming down at the top of the ship.

"WHAT THE HELL IS THAT!!!??" He screamed without caring anymore that showing fear was a weakness. He was scared!

"It's a Saiyajin! He's out of control! Bloody hell!" Cried the technician. Another impact shorted out the console he was working at, and his body convulsed as he was electrocuted. The limp body flew back and landed against the wall, smoke rising from it and filling the room with the awful stench of burnt flesh.

"The engines are gone! We're going down!" Samusa cried, leaning over and putting her arms around Cooler to protect him. She looked up at Kold with fear growing in her slanted eyes. "Cooler, hang onto me!"

Cooler braced himself in Samusa's arms. The ship spun out of control even faster, like a carnival ride gone wrong. 

A totally animalistic roar split the air over the whistle of air rushing across jagged rips in the ship's hull. One of the transformed Saiyajins sank his teeth into the hull and released a blinding white breath-blast. Like it was nothing, chunk of the ship disintegrated. 

Samusa felt her seat slide backwards and threw Cooler free from her just as the chair broke free and sent her plummeting out of the ship.

"MOTHER!!!" Cooler screamed. He lunged to catch her, but wasn't fast enough. He watched Samusa fall, fighting the restraints in the seat in attempt to free herself. Just below her, the Saiyajins were grappling and firing blasts at buildings that must have been created by someone more primitive than even they were.

"SAMUSA!!!" King Kold screamed when he turned and saw his wife was so close to the fray. She'd managed to break free of the chair and was currently hovering above the fray. Kold looked away and fixed his serious gaze on his teenaged son, "Cooler, fly out of this ship and stay above us! I don't want you to get hurt."

"But - "

"JUST DO IT!!!!!"

"Yes, father." Cooler reluctantly exited the falling craft and flew straight up until the pale purple shape of his father and the moving brown shapes of the Saiyajins were only specks in the distance.

Meanwhile, Samusa found herself to be in quite a predicament when one of the Saiyajin Oozarus plucked her from the air. The grip was too tight for even her to claw herself free. She could only hold on and hope her husband was strong enough to save her.

"LET HER GO!!" King Kold roared angrily, channeling his ki into his hands until a blinding sphere formed between his palms. His muscles rippled as he drew his arms back and hurled the energy at the Saiyajin's face, hitting him square in the eyes.

The Saiyajin roared in pain and flailed around, jerking Samusa like a ragdoll. She grabbed handfuls of sparse fur growing on the hand, but she didn't dare to channel any ki because she knew it might hurt the baby more than this treatment could. Her biggest fear was that the Saiyajin would decide to crush her, which he could very easily do if he got any angrier than he already was. 

"Kold! Please be careful! Don't draw the others here!"

"I don't care about the others!" Kold yelled as he opened his hand and started to form a red sphere of light. The glow shined on his dark blue carapace and caused shadows to dance about his face. The red sphere slowly flattened into a disk-like shape. The outer edges were pink and the center of it was blood red. "Just stay still!"

Samusa squeezed her eyes shut. The Saiyajin's hand closed tighter around her, putting pressure on her delicate abdomen and causing her tremendous pain. She managed to stifle a scream so it only came out as a low moan, but her silent agony didn't escape King Kold's notice.

With an anguished cry, the Icejin king released the red _Tsuibi Kienzan_ at the Saiyajin's wrist. The disk cut right through, and the Saiyajin roared in pain. Blood squirted everywhere to paint the area crimson. The massive hand fell away and went limp enough for Samusa to wriggle free.

"Get out of here, Samusa! NOW!!!" Kold hollered. He glanced up, spotted Cooler way up in the atmosphere and nodded to himself, glad the boy couldn't see what was going on. His eyes turned back to the fight at hand and his muscles tensed, ready to take on another monkey.

Samusa hesitated, lashed her tail and turned back to Kold. "Kold, let's go!" 

That hesitation was a big mistake. 

As soon as Samusa stopped, the wounded Oozaru narrowed his eyes at her and drew back his remaining fist. Time seemed to reach a crawl. King Kold's eyes opened wide, he was too far away to stop what he knew was coming. 

"NO!!!"

Baring its spittle-coated teeth, the large creature backhanded the Icejin female from behind. The air filled with the sickening thud of a large object slamming into a body. Samusa shrieked in pain as she was batted away like an insect. She slammed belly-first into the side of a mountain, screaming the entire way. The liquid in her womb cushioned the infant inside her, but the fetus was still sent ricocheting around in slow motion like an astronaut lost in space.

With her head reeling from the pain, the pregnant Icejin queen delicately coughed up a mouthful of blood and went limp, her body tumbling away from the mountainside. Unable to break her out of control fall, she landed flat on her back at the bottom, a plume of dust and loose soil flying up around her.

It was all over in less than a second, but it felt longer.

Time restarted again with Kold frozen and trembling, his eyes on the dust plume where Samusa fell. His throat clutched up until he couldn't make a sound. He felt his muscles tighten with renewed energy. Veins popped up under his skin, pulsating with blood. Lines of rage formed around his nose. Red eyes narrowed to angry slits. Thin black lips pulled back until perfect teeth gleamed.

Those monsters just hurt his wife. They were going to _pay._

Cooler watched anxiously from way up above the clouds. He'd seen the red glow of his father's _Tsuibi Kienzan_ followed by a dust plume. He didn't know why. All he knew was two other Saiyajins were making a beeline for his parents, stomping on primitive houses and crushing weaker civilians as they went along. 

__

Oh no… He thought. _Don't they see them coming?!_

"DIE!!!!" an enraged King Kold formed two more _Tsuibi Kienzans_ and flung them towards the Saiyajins, aiming to kill. By accident, one of the rotating red discs of doom sliced off a Saiyajin's tail on its way to decapitating another. 

The instant the appendage was separated from the body it belonged to, the Saiyajin fell, his fur shrinking away and his body growing smaller as he slowly transformed back to his normal shape. In less than a minute, the large brown beast had become a muscular naked man with spiked up black hair and many scars covering his tanned flesh.

Cooler clenched his fists when his father failed to attack the two approaching Oozaru. _He doesn't see them! He must be in a rage!_ Not caring anymore what happened if he went down there, Cooler took a deep breath and concentrated. Veins bulged under his skin and his muscles increased in size. He was going to be so busted for this, but there was no choice this time.

"You'll thank me for this later," the teenager muttered, and charged into the fray. He swooped down on the first 'sneaky' Oozaru and removed its tail with a ki-charged martial arts chop.

"Cooler! What the hell!?" Kold roared, dodging a grab from one of the Saiyajins. He gestured with his left hand and the _Tsuibi Kienzan _zapped past his shoulder to slash a Saiyajin's tail off with ease. The Saiyajin quickly went back to normal, falling to the ground as he shrank.

"I'm not going to stand there like an idiot and let you get killed down here!" Cooler replied through clenched teeth as he aimed his fist at the tail of the second approaching Oozaru(which Kold failed to notice). "There were two more coming and you haven't even turned their way! I got the first one, now here's the second!" He fired the blast on the unsuspecting beast, and within a matter of a moment, the Saiyajin had gone back to normal. "Besides, you told me to stay above you and I did…" He indicated quite obviously that he was still floating above the fight.

Kold's lips slowly curled into a smirk at Cooler's wit. He took advantage of the break in the action to dive to the ground and land next to Samusa. He stepped forwards, then leapt back when his feet encountered liquid. His eyes widened when he realized his wife was lying in a growing puddle. Too much liquid to merely be a voided bladder.

"Oh…unh…" Samusa moaned as she started to come around.

"Samusa, don't move. I think you're deflating." Kold stated gently, now very worried as he knelt in the dirt and lifted her into his strong arms. At the rate the fluid was leaking from her body, she would be quickening in a matter of minutes instead of hours. Kold couldn't tell for sure if she was leaking blood or not, because the soil they were on was dark brown. He just had to trust his instincts and move her slowly

"The baby…?"

"You haven't expelled the fetus." King Kold spoke as gentle as he could, it being very hard because he was boiling with rage at the Saiyajins for even daring to lay a hand on her. He tightened his lips and rose from the dirt, heading quickly towards the large carrier vessel with Cooler following close behind.

"Father! Mother….what happened?!"

"One of those beasts attacked her." Kold answered quickly. "They - "

"Oh!" Samusa cried out in pain. She doubled up in her husbands arms as a squeezing sensation rippled through her lower back and stomach. It felt like the pain of an imminent bowel movement, but she knew better. "No! Kold, I'm having contractions! No! It's way too soon! It still has another six months to gestate! No!" She cried.

"What?!" Kold gritted his teeth. With a flash of power he tripled his speed towards the ship where they swooped up into the docking bay. "Try not to move too much, my love. Perhaps we can reverse the labor."

Samusa put her hand down between her legs, which she had crossed. She looked as if she was desperate to use a bathroom. In reality, she was trying to keep the baby's head from coming out, but the amniotic fluids kept pouring between her fingers. She felt a new heaviness in her loins and grew more distraught, "It's in the birth canal! No! It's too soon!" 

"STRATS!!!" Kold bellowed as soon as he landed. He carried Samusa down the corridor and into the medical bay, too concerned to worry about panting for breath. Cooler caught up with them and stood there gasping while they waited for help to arrive.

An odd shape appeared and rushed to aid Kold and Samusa. He was a short, lanky blue alien with large yellow eyes, brown hair and antennae that waved about his upper lip like a mustache. 

Samusa was in a lot of pain, crying and trying not to push. The pain, however, forced her instincts into play and she started to push a little anyway. In her agony she jerked an arm up and wrapped her fingers halfway around Kold's throat. Each time another contraction struck, Kold would get mildly strangled. It would have been funny if the situation wasn't so dangerous.

"Ohhhhhhhhhhhh, someone make it stop, please!"

"Oh dear. The labor is too far progressed. The child is already in the birth canal." Strats reported after having Samusa remove her armor and lay back on a table so he could do a very quick examination. "The baby is very premature, but if it isn't delivered now, it will die."

"No! I don't want to lose my baby!" Samusa sobbed. She was crying, tears pouring down her flushed cheeks. Labor pains made themselves more and more apparent, and she could feel the baby slipping deeper down her birth canal. It finally stopped about halfway down. Samusa opened her eyes and exhaled loudly as sweat dripped down the sides of her pale face. "It…it stopped…"

"Isn't there anything you can do to stop labor without taking the baby out?" Kold asked desperately.

Strats shook his round head slowly. "No, only because the baby is already partway out of her uterus. It needs to be delivered now or it _will_ die."

"Strats, do something!" Cooler cried, taking his mother's hand and squeezing it to offer her some comfort. He felt her squeeze back in return.

King Kold sneered at Cooler's panic; it was reflecting his own inner fear and he didn't need to be more upset than he already was. "Cooler, be quiet! This is no time to panic!"

Strats put a glove on his odd, six fingered hand and bent down to look into Samusa's birth canal. He could see the top of the baby's head. The child had a shiny purple carapace, from what he could see. The doctor tightened his lips nervously and glanced up at Samusa, "I'm going to reach in and do some shifting until I can get the head out. Push if you feel the need, it'll help me a lot." 

With that, Strats reached his gloved hand carefully into Samusa's body, slipped two fingers around behind the baby's head and tried to pry it free. The head wouldn't budge, and the doctor found out why when he felt a loop of umbilical cord. "Samusa, don't push. It's wrapped in the cord and I need to untangle it. Hold on a moment."

"O-OK…" the queen breathed tearfully.

Kold bent down and tenderly pressed his lips to Samusa's cheek. "It will be all right, my love." He brushed away her tears with his knuckles in attempt to calm himself down.

Strats worked his index finger around the slick purple umbilical loop and uncurled it from around the half-born child's neck. As though released like a spring the tiny head jerked forward in a rush of fluid and into his waiting hands. He cupped the small head with his palm and eased it out of Samusa's body. "We have a head here…" he reported.

Tiny features blurred by blood and fluid greeted the vision of Strats, Cooler and King Kold. Little deathly-gray lips formed a straight line below a flattened nose and bulging, tightly shut slanted eyes. It was so tiny that Cooler swore it looked like a child's doll.

"Can you push once for me?"

Samusa nodded amidst her tears and bore down on the creature too small for her to feel it leaving her body. It felt more like an abortion than a birth, but something told her this was right to do. Instinctively, she reached her own hands down along with Strats's and could feel the smooth head protruding from her body. She squeezed her eyes shut and pushed once more, not minding the pain now as she felt the miniature body suddenly slide into hers and Strats' hands in a gush of blood and fluids. A moan of pain issued forth from her black lips, mixed with sobs of relief. 

The child was out and lying in her hands, it's minuscule tail all tangled in the umbilical cord. 

Slowly, Samusa raised her hands to look at the tiny newborn. She couldn't tell what it was, there was too much blood down there. She breathed a sigh, focusing more on the little body lying in her hands.

The newborn had purple carapace armor on its scalp, shoulders, stomach, arms and legs. The parts of its skin not bathed in blood were a pale gray-white like the moon. Its pouty, motionless little black lips looked just like Samusa's in color and shape. The child was so premature that it hadn't even grown baby fat yet. It made it look like a skeleton with skin stretched over the bones. It was so small that, if it stretched, its limbs wouldn't reach beyond the edges of Samusa's cupped palms. 

But Samusa's worry wasn't near over. Her heart stopped when she noticed the baby's chest wasn't moving.

"It's not breathing..." Panic welled in her red eyes, "My baby isn't breathing!"

King Kold didn't think, he just acted on instinct. His large hand swept down, lifted the fragile newborn from Samusa's hands and brought it close to his face. "Come on…breathe!" He used his thumb(which covered the baby's chest completely) to squeeze the fluids from the baby's lungs, then puckered his lips over its nose and mouth and carefully exhaled. The frail chest rose and fell, and ceased when the large king moved his face away.

Strats, Samusa and Cooler watched in a mix of panic and shock as King Kold, one of the galaxy's most ruthless killers, gently tried to breathe life into the inert form with little success. When forcing air into the baby's lungs failed, Kold grew desperate and grasped the it by the tail. He held the newborn upside down, hoping the blood would go to its head and rouse it.

"Father!"

Cooler was stopped by his mother when she grabbed his arm hard. She knew Kold knew what he was doing, and that he wouldn't let this child die if he could help it.

For moments, nothing. The skeletal figure just hung there with its limbs all dangling, bulging eyes unmoving while birth fluids gushed from its nostrils. Then its mouth started to tremble and its tiny heart started to beat. Kold righted the baby and breathed into its mouth again, forcing its chest rise.

"Come on, you're not done yet little one." 

Suddenly the miniature limbs twitched like a dreamer being awakened. The face twisted and its small mouth popped open. Now flooded with fresh oxygen, the baby's bloody skin turned from ashen to white and its puffy face flushed as it started to cry weakly. 

__

I'm cold, tired, afraid and mad! Why am I upside down? It's too bright! The cries seemed to say.

Kold's face softened and a single tear trembled in his eye. Relieved, he carefully handed the baby to Strats so he could identify its sex.

"Goodness! He's really mad!" Strats grinned, lifting one of the newborn's spindly legs to peer at its genitals. He smiled afterwards and placed the shivering newborn into Samusa's hands so she could hold it. "It's a boy, Samusa. A little miracle. Congratulations."

For some odd reason as she held her child for the first time and heard his cries, Samusa felt a sensation like the tide coming in. It literally felt as if she had just plunged her arms into the rushing water of the ocean a moment after a wave crashed. "Oh, my little one…" She whispered softly with a smile on her face, and the child was quiet within seconds. "Hush, my precious little one…you're safe now. Mommy's here…"

"Wow…." Cooler whispered, having never seen a newborn that small before. "He looks like a girl though…how weird." That remark from Cooler got a small smile out of Samusa, who thought the child was beautiful despite his gaunt appearance.

"What will we call him?" Kold asked his wife, leaning down to touch his lips gently to the side of her face, motioning Cooler to come closer and see his little brother.

Samusa smiled slightly, ignoring the birth fluids on her son's face as she leaned down to kiss his forehead. "I will call him Freeza." She replied softly. "It means 'miracle warrior' in the Old Tongue."

Kold smiled and bent down to kiss her brow. "Yes, he is a little miracle warrior…the name suits him perfectly."

As if in response, the newly-named Freeza's large eyelids lifted and a pair of red eyes fixed onto Samusa. His tiny mouth opened and the lips pulled back, almost as if he were trying to smile at her while she held him close to her bare chest to keep him warm. Samusa smiled too and watched Freeza's extremely small hands and three-toed feet open and close. The clinging reflex was kicking in. In a few seconds, his little tail, still tangled in the umbilical cord, had wrapped around her wrist.

"Will he live?" Kold turned to Strats, his cape rustling and his dark blue carapace catching the light. His tone of voice was more demanding than questioning, the deep rumble of it filling the entire room.

"I…don't know. It doesn't look too good. Allow me to clean him up first and run some examinations, please. It won't take long." Strats replied, the antennae on his upper lip waving to and fro slightly, something that only happened when he was nervous or scared.

Nodding, Samusa carefully unwrapped the small, seemingly boneless tail from her wrist and handed Freeza over. The umbilical cord stretched and broke naturally and slowly retracted back into her womb. Her body would absorb the umbilical cord and placenta to make special milk for the first months of Freeza's life.

As soon as he left his mother's grasp and scent, Freeza started to bunch his fists and whine in protest, his small voice too weak to carry very far. Tears filled Samusa's eyes when she watched Strats carry the miniature person away, because she knew he was very frail and barely clinging to life.

Samusa maneuvered her hoverpod into the medical bay, tired of waiting for the test results. She roughly pulled a technician aside and demanded. "I want to see my son. Where is he?"

The shaken technician pointed to a corner and promptly resumed with his work. Samusa thanked him and floated to the corner. She passed through a thin forcefield, which instantly killed any bacteria or viruses on her skin. 

Standing in the center of another, smaller force field full of concentrated oxygen and surrounded with a dozen or so monitors was a small platform with a little bed on it. The little bed looked like a glass egg that was cut from top to bottom and lined with clean white and purple sheets. Lying amidst those sheets, swaddled in a soft purple blanket, was the tiny and helpless shape of Freeza. 

Samusa slowly floated to her baby boy's bedside, reached down and lifted him into her hands, holding his head with one hand and the rest of his body in the other. Metal cups were attached to the newborn's chest, monitoring his heartbeat and respiration. Above the bassinet was a monitor that gave constant readouts on Freeza's condition.

Freeza's small eyes opened sleepily when he felt himself being moved. His black lips gaped, a yawn that seemed impossibly huge overcoming him. He stretched and gurgled, his tiny girlish black lips smacking softly. Stimulated by his mother's scent, he tried to suckle with nothing to suck on. 

__

I'm hungry…feed me, mommy, the gesture seemed to say.

"Hello, my beautiful little one…" Samusa whispered, leaning down to kiss his forehead. Freeza responded by wrapping his tail around her wrist and gurgling at her again. The Icejin queen smiled and cradled him in one hand, using the other to open her robe, exposing her firm, milk-engorged breast. She supported Freeza's floppy head with two fingers and moved him up to her purple nipple. His black lips stretched wide as he latched on and started to suckle, the soft slurping noises punctuating the silence. 

He may have been tiny and the nipple barely fit in his mouth, but he was strong enough to nurse. Samusa knew then that he would be all right.

"Yes, that's my boy…you eat and get stronger. Let's show them you're going to live whether they like it or not." She whispered as she rocked with him in her arms, letting him eat his fill.

Freeza grew tired and stopped nursing after a few quick mouthfuls of milk. He nuzzled into her chest to get warmer without taking his mouth off of her teat. His tiny hands came to rest on his own cheeks. He squirmed some more before he finally closed his eyes and drifted back to sleep again, knowing somehow that he was in safe arms. 

"How's he doing, Mom?" Cooler asked, having entered silently without Samusa hearing his approach. He'd been watching her feed his little brother, still astonished by his size.

"He just ate. He's eating and that's a good sign. Usually the ones that aren't going to make it are the ones that don't or can't eat." Samusa replied, looking over at her eldest son with a tender smile. Cooler smiled and nodded his armored head. Then he left the room to get out of the way when he saw his father approaching.

King Kold entered the area slowly with Strats beside him. Kold crossed his arms and glared at the alien doctor, looking like a mountain draped in armor and cloth. Strats, dwarfed by the king's size and looking very nervous, adjusted his clipboard and briefly read what he'd written down. Samusa waited expectantly as Freeza slept soundly in her arms, his little black lips still wrapped around her teat. He looked so peaceful and innocent, like he feared he would disappear if he let go of his mother.

"Well?" Kold barked, wanting Strats to get on with it.

Strats jumped, startled, and started to explain with a dry tongue, "Freeza is very premature, as you very well know. But I also made a few interesting discoveries about him as well." He paused, cleared his throat and looked over at Freeza. "It would seem that although he is male, he was born with female reproductive organs as well as male ones. The male organs are the dominant ones, however…"

"You mean to say that my son is a he-she!? A freak!?" Kold growled.

"No. As I said, his male organs are the dominant ones. He has a uterus and ovaries, but no vagina." He glanced down at his clipboard again to check himself, then looked up and continued briskly, "When he grows up, he may have some secondary sex characteristics; he might be smaller than most, have a more feminine look and shape, his voice may not get very deep or even change at all…but only time will tell those things."

"So he's a girl with a dick." King Kold crossed his arms, his anger growing rapidly that such a thing could happen in his family. "I guess he can't have kids either?"

"Kold!" Samusa hissed angrily as she rocked Freeza in her arms, "No matter what he is, he's our son! Don't speak of him that way!"

Strats tapped his clipboard to quiet everyone down. Kold let his arms fall to his sides and fixed his gaze on Strats. Samusa fell silent and looked down at Freeza in her arms, watching his little black lips move as he nursed in his sleep. She leaned down and kissed his delicate forehead. Then she straightened and continued to listen to Strats.

"Your son will be able to have active sex and experience orgasms, that part of his anatomy is unaffected. Whether or not he is fertile remains to be seen. I expect him to survive as long as he eats well for the first few months of his life and gets plenty of rest. So far it seems that he has no problem with either of those." He chuckled and looked at Freeza, then glanced up at Kold, "I can say this: He will be extremely powerful someday if he's trained right. If I took a correct reading, his power level is nearly ten-thousand."

"TEN THOUSAND!?" Kold and Samusa both cried in shock. Freeza twitched and started to cry, startled by the noise. Samusa made an apologetic face and rocked him gently to soothe away the tears.

"Well, yes." Strats stuck his finger in his auditory orifice to recover some of his hearing and put his digital pen down, a tiny suction cup keeping it from falling off the clipboard. He glanced up at them again and sighed. They always were two of the most excitable people he'd ever seen in his life.

"This is ridiculous." King Kold's dark blue carapace caught the light and his cape rustled as he stormed out of the room. He paused at the door and spat, "I will not have some shemale be the heir to my throne!" With that, he was gone. Samusa winced, shook her head at him and sighed. She rocked Freeza gently in her arms, smiling when he wrapped his tail around her fingers and squeezed weakly.

It was late at night and Kold still couldn't sleep. His mind was whirling in circles at a million light years per second. _I don't want someone that looks like a female sitting in my throne after I drop dead. I just refuse! I refuse to have people mocking my family name…I refuse to have people mocking my child…_ Before Kold realized it, he'd wandered into the medical bay and was standing at Freeza's bedside. _He looks so puny and weak. But he also looks so much like Samusa…I bet he'll be the same color as she is and have horns like me when he learns to down-grade his power too…_

Freeza was asleep, looking angelic while all curled up among the purple blankets that he was swathed in. His tiny, delicate hands were just poking above the top of the blanket and resting on his cheeks as his little black lips smacked occasionally while he dreamed. His fingernails were so small, just little glints of light on the ends of his fingers. 

Glancing around, Kold reached down, cupped the preemie in both hands and lifted him closer for a better look. Freeza awoke when he was moved, but he didn't cry. He just smacked his lips, yawned a huge yawn and babbled softly, spit bubbles forming in the corners of his mouth. When his son did that, the mighty King Kold's icy heart melted just a little, and a smile played about his black lips. It felt strange to him, knowing that he was holding his own flesh and blood, so warm and alive, in his strong hands. He sat down slowly as he held Freeza, speaking in soft undertones that soothed him back to sleep.

"I apologize for getting angry." Kold whispered to the sleeping baby, not caring that he couldn't be understood yet, "You are what you are, and nothing can change that. You are my son and I will care for you." He brought Freeza close and held him against his muscular chest, which was bare since he didn't have his armor on. Another tear formed in his eye when he felt that tiny, weak chest pulsate with life. "I'll care for you…" He whispered as he rubbed his small son's back with his finger.

"Hey father." Cooler poked his head in and blinked sleepily. "How's Freeza?"

Kold turned slowly so as not to wake the infant in his arms, and the carapace on his head shined a little in the dim lights. "He's fine."

Cooler came further inside and stood next to his father, his red eyes turning to look at the sleeping baby. "He is kind of cute. Well at least the girls would think so." He paused, twitched his long tail indecisively and added on, "Can I hold him?"

"Yes. Just do it carefully." Kold replied, gently passing Freeza to Cooler. Cooler had to use both arms to hold his little brother, because he was just a little less than half the size of his parents. His hands weren't exactly huge like theirs, but Freeza fit perfectly in the crooks of his arms.

Freeza woke up a little when he was passed, but he just wiggled his wrinkled white fingers, murmured softly and looked up at Cooler with a pair of sleepy eyes that seemed almost too large for his face. Cooler smiled at the baby and said, "Hi Freeza. I'm your big brother Cooler. I hope we can be friends…" Freeza responded by grasping the edge of the blanket he was wrapped in with a tiny hand. Cooler reached his finger down and lifted the baby's hand, making it let go. He snickered when he felt Freeza's miniature fingers wrap around his larger one and squeeze. "Hey," he groaned in mock pain, "ouch! You're strong!"

"Yagaah" Freeza murmured, closing his eyes.

King Kold just watched, smiling a little as the two brothers started to form a sort of bond. "Maybe in the future, he'll be one of the strongest fighters in the universe…"

Cooler glanced up, a brow raised as he placed Freeza back in bed with practiced gentleness. "We'll find out in about fifteen years or so."

"I guess so." The giant Icejin rose from his perch near the bassinet and rubbed a hand down the center of his angular face. He was exhausted and looking forward to a good night's sleep. Samusa was already asleep and that was why he came down here in the first place. "Don't stay up too late and don't keep the baby up all night either, you hear me?"

"No problem."

Kold nodded and left the room, rubbing the back of his large wide neck to work out the kinks. Cooler watched him until his massive shape disappeared and his footsteps faded. Then he produced his scouter with the _Whiptail_ microdisk still in the slot.

"Welcome to the universe, little brother." Cooler grinned, flashing flawless teeth. He placed his scouter near Freeza's head, pressed the activation button and walked out to get a good night's sleep.

And the crashing drums, loud guitars and growling vocals began to play.

__

I'm gonna conquer your world!  
I'm gonna take over!  
I'm risin' to power there's nothin' you can do about it!  
Here I am, weaklings!   
I have arrived!  
(YAAAAAH!)  
Bow down to me!   
I will rule this universe and all of you!  
Bow down to me!  
(YAAAAH!)  
Bow down to me!  
(YAAAH!)

Freeza didn't flinch when the new sound bombarded his ears. The tiny newborn just stretched out until the top of his armored head touched the scouter's earpiece(which was almost as big as his purple carapace), and drifted off to sleep with his thumb in his mouth as the seemingly prophetic music played softly in his ear.


End file.
